Facebook has bought Tagtile, an unusual marketing firm that employs a little box that users can tap with their smartphone to “tag” themselves in order to benefit from rewards.

Facebook has bought Tagtile, an unusual marketing firm that employs a little box that users can tap with their smartphone to “tag” themselves in order to benefit from rewards.

Tagtile is effectively a check-in service, with users tapping the Tagtile cube with their phone rather than clicking a check-in button on their device when they're inside a shop. This makes the process of checking in a lot easier and smoother.

Tagtile will no longer be accepting new customers, but the service will remain available for existing customers “for now.” Interestingly, the company said that “Tagtile as it exists today won't be part of what we do at Facebook,” but it did not elaborate on what exactly it might be working on under the auspices of its new management.

The acquisition comes only days after Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion, suggesting the company is on a spending spree before its initial public offering (IPO) in May. Whether or not this increases investor interest or scares off some who think it's spending wildly remains to be seen.